Heretofore, various apparatus and methods have been proposed for stitching or securing a strip of rubber tread material to the tread receiving portion and adjacent side wall portions of a tire carcass. However, they have suffered from one or more disadvantages. For example, the production rate has been relatively slow, i.e., approximately 17 to 40 tires per hour. Additionally, the generally flat strip of tread material has been applied in a manner resulting in a wrinkling or puckering of those portions which are applied about the side walls of the carcass and which has also resulted in a decreased thickness in certain portions of the strip. The application of a strip of material to a tire carcass wherein portions of it undergo a certain reduction in thickness is undesirable since, in order to compensate for this reduction, it has been necessary to use a slightly thicker strip of tread material. This increased thickness of the strip has undesirably increased the cost of retreading or recapping tires. The application of the strip to a tire carcass in a manner producing puckering or wrinkling of the portions which are applied about its side walls is disadvantageous also since these portions prematurely split or lose their bond at those points at which the wrinkles have been originally formed, thus adversely affecting the life of a tire, the road engaging portion of which may be only partially expended by wear at the time of side wall failure. Another problem encountered in prior art apparatus and methods has been to maintain the longitudinal axis of a generally flat strip of rubber material coplanar with the center line of the tread portion of the tire carcass. Another disadvantage of the prior art is the inability to prevent the production of recapped or retreaded tires having undesirable light or heavy spots. The existence of such light or heavy spots results in an unbalanced condition when the tire is mounted on a vehicle. Further, the prior art has been disadvantageous due to its poor stitching capabilities and has required the rotation of the tire carcass and its attached strip several complete revolutions in order to effect a barely satisfactory bonding of the strip to the tire carcass. As will be apparent, the time required to rotate the tire carcass the number of revolutions as aforespecified decreased the production rate. Another disadvantage of the prior art was the inability to maintain a predetermined contour or configuration of a strip of material while it was being bonded or stitched to the carcass. Due to the excessive compressive forces applied by the stitcher to the surface of the strip, it was difficult, if not impossible, to retain contours and configurations in their undistorted form in the surface of the strip.